Die Wüste Malo

Louis Fried • Deutschland / Germany 2013 •
23 Min • 16mm • Farbe/ Color • deutsch/ German •
English subtitles • experimenteller Kurzspielfilm / Experimental
English Title: Malo Desert

Zwei Filmemacher beim Versuch der Landschaft ein Geheimnis zu entlocken. Ohne enge Vorgaben wollen sie, nur aus der aufmerksamen Beobachtung heraus, einen Film entwickeln. Möglichst wenig Gedanken hinein projizieren, sondern die Materie zum sprechen bringen, so ungefähr lautet ihr Credo. Darunter mischen sich surreale Stadtszenerien und Szenen an Filmsets und im Schneideraum. “Die Film in Film”- Geschichte entwickelt mehrere Ebenen, die sich überlagern und Fiktion und Realität, Idealismus und Arbeitsalltag verschwimmen lassen. Und immer wieder die stoischen Versuche der Protagonisten, in der Reflexion die Dinge doch noch irgendwie in eine Ordnung zu bringen.

Two filmmakers attempting to coax a secret from the landscape. Without any preconditions, they want to create a film only through attentive observation. To project as few thoughts as possible into the matter, letting it speak, that’s more or less their credo. In between: surreal cityscapes, scenes at film sets and from the editing room. The “film in film” story develops several layers, superimposing on one another, blurring the line between fiction and reality, idealism and everyday work. And time and again, the stoic attempts of the protagonists to reflect on matters and to somehow get them back into some kind of order.

With: Julia Frankenberg, Taeckgo Goldt, Helga Boettiger, Ruth Rupp, Marcela Moraga, Catalina Angel, Yasmin Angel, Lujan Martelli, Thomas Gernoth, Charlotte Jaus, Astrid Lher, Lutz Cleve, Lutz Jelinski, Udo Engel, Gonzalo Barahona, Jonas Schmidt, Julia Küllmer, Björn Last, Christofer Schwarz, Jan Sobotka, Klaus Robra
Camera:Michael Steinhauser
Editing: Louis Fried/ Maya Connnors
Sound Design: Pablo Paolo Kilian
Set Design: Tina Eroesova

Screenings:
AeroShortFilm Ärösköbing Denmark
Werkschau im Ex-Schlecker in Kiel Gaarden
Extra, Festival für experimentelle Film- und Videokunst Leipzig
11. The First And The Last Experimental Int. Film Festival Sydney
14. Jeonju International Film Festival
Timishort Film Festival Timisoara
4. Odderader Filmtage
“Final Cut” Metropoliskino Hamburg

“Wandering to find their subject, a man and a woman go toward a strange field. Without any exact objects, they go on a journey along the road as if bewitched. Their destination is the ‘Malo Desert’ where nobody lives, but just before they arrive there, the man experiences strange illusions. Is the woman beside him a real image or just an illusion of his? Images incessantly wandering the desert and uneasy sound and tones through the center of the film might be associated with Don’t Look Now by Nicolas Roeg. Ambiguous images, which don’t ‘actually’ exist but are indistinguishable between reality and dream, put more and more pressure on him, and even the audience would be about to fail in recognizing what is real.“   (Jeonju International Film Festival ; Stranger Than Cinema – Section)